Oracle Blog

Sun Campus Ambassador

Friday Jun 26, 2009

Attending
JavaOne 2009 Conference at San Francisco was a wonderful, learning
experience. As a part of Sun Microsystems's Campus Ambassador Program,
they nominated five CA's from all over the world who would get an
opportunity to attend the JavaOne 2009 Conference, fully sponsored by
them. Let me now share my JavaOne 2009 experiences with you all.

Let
me start with the day when we reached San Francisco. Three of us –
Ashwin Bhat from Mangalore, Angad from Delhi (Both of them are Tech
Leads) and I – landed at San Francisco on Sunday, the May 31 afternoon,
It was one of the "most awaited moments" of my life. When I reached the
hotel lobby (Hotel Nikko, where we were put up), Gary was there to
receive us. He had told us that we would meet-up for dinner at 6 p.m.
Besides me, other three CAs, Tom, Hyejin, Felipe had also checked in at
the hotel around the same time. After the dinner, he told Tom, Hyejin,
Felipe and Me that all four of us would be on stage with David Douglas
during his Keynote session the next day! Wow! This news was thrilling….
To be in front of 3000 audience (delegates) was unimaginable!

On
June 1st (Day-1), we were ready with our "two sentences" that we were
supposed to answer to David on the Stage. In the course of his Keynote
Address, David invited all four of us (CAs) to the Stage. After
welcoming me to JavaOne, David asked, "What OSUM looks like in India".
That was simple. I answered, "As Campus Ambassadors, we have set up
OSUM Clubs in various Universities in India, where we conduct Tech
Demos, Contests for the Student Communities. It’s all about promoting
Free and OpenSource Softwares to the Students. For more details, please
visit osum.sun.com"

It
was truly amazing to be on the Stage - not as speakers but to be
rewarded :). I was extremely delighted when I looked back on the
Stage…. Our University name was up on the big screen! Amrita Vishwa
Vidyapeetham declared its presence, on the world-map!!

JavaOne
was a huge convention. It was Java, Java and Java, all the way.
Everywhere there was Java in some or the other form. The Pavilion
opened up at around 3 p.m. When I went in, there were a number of
stalls/lounge put up by different companies, individuals, or anyone who
use Java in some or other form. I was given the responsibility of
manning the "OSUM Lounge" - a stall/lounge for students to come in and
learn or join the OSUM Community. The entry to JavaOne Conference was
free for the students so we had many coming in! It was nice to meet a
lot of students and exchange the thoughts. At the OSUM Lounge, we had a
"Scavenger Hunt" where we gave out small cards to the students with a
list of "must attend" technical session, lectures beneficial to
students. To verify they attend the session, a person from the stall
would stand in front of the hall for stamping. And at the end of the
day, if a student has a minimum of 4 stamps, they are entitled for the
Raffle where "IPod Touch" or "SunSpot" were given out! This helped
students participate efficiently in the JavaOne event by providing the
schedules ahead of time. Fun while you learn….!

Apart
from OSUM Lounge, we had the OpenSolaris Install Lounge, Sun Cloud,
Zembly, Intel, Sony, BlackBerry, JavaFX and many other stalls. There
was also an interesting stall titled "Create Your Custom T-Shirt". When
you give a caption like, for example, "Java + Community = Powerful",
you will have this printed on your Java T-Shirt. It was fun!

The
2009 JavaOne Conference opened on Tuesday (June 2, 2009) morning with
the Sun General Session. Hosted by the Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan
Schwartz, the session ended with an appearance by Sun Chairman and
Co-founder Scott McNealy, who introduced surprise guest Larry Ellison,
Co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation. Oracle's acquisition of Sun
Microsystems, announced in April, is expected to be finalized in the
next few months.

Schwartz
opened the 14th JavaOne conference with a trip down the memory lane. It
was fabulous. My day went in interviewing people - for JavaOne Minutes,
asking them about their experience at JavaOne and running around in the
Pavilion grabbing my "GOODIES". I got loads of them. I also had an
opportunity of talking at an Exclusive JavaOne Radio Coverage with Lin
Lee, Vice President Global Communities, which was streamed online.

My
next best moment at the Sun Party was when I got a rare opportunity of
standing with James Gosling, the Founder of Java for a photograph. It
was great; I am going to preserve this photograph life-long! A real
memoir, of course!!

The
next day, I went on attending the sessions, manning the OSUM Lounge,
running around and so on. The best part of the day was when we CAs were
called for a video shooting as part of The Global Communities Teams
Success Stories, which works directly with Influencer Worldwide who
shape how billions of people use and will be impacted by technology.
After that, we had a dinner party with Lin Lee and some more Sun
Employees who help with the Student Communities around the world. Here,
Gary surprised us (Tom, Hyejin, Felipe and me) by presenting a very
nice glass cube memento to each one of us. It was really awesome with
our name and "Campus Ambassador Program - Outstanding Results Award"
carved on that. Thank you Sun!

Thursday
was usual - attending sessions. In the second half, Gary took us all -
Angad, Ashwin, Kevin, Felipe, Tom, Hyejin, David Botterill and me - on
a San Francisco tour. It was again a great one. Thanks a bunch Gary!

On
the last day, James Gosling's annual whirlwind Toy Show at the JavaOne
conference displayed not only technical excellence and innovation, but
also excellence in generating technology that serves humanity. He gave
out the "Duke's Choice Award" - The award for the most innovative
concept / idea done using Java. The event was well attended, and the
audience was enthusiastic as ever.

What
a learning experience….! Learning never stops. In all, it was a great
opportunity that I got from Sun. Sun Microsystems is an amazing
Organization. I am so much influenced by the people and the technology
@ Sun that it’s hard to leave them all. I just cant complete without
thanking (in no particular order) - Lin Lee, Gary Serda, Ganesh, Vijaya
Santosh, Ajay, Rajesh, Kumar Abhishek, David (who was with us all the
time entertaining us), Pratibha (Travel Desk), and Veena Damodaran
(sorry if I have missed someone). I am greatly indebted to my College
for creating this opportunity for me and for the support. In
particular, I want to thank my professor, mentor, guide and friend
Vipin Pavithran Sir who was the source for me to reach up to this
level. He inspired me; ignited my thoughts and took me to the right
direction. Finally, thanks to my parents, for their encouragement and
support in my endeavors. Thank you everyone.